The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Rebuilding key to development
Local historians point to a creative past in city management, sandstone quarry
The long history of Amherst’s development is in part one of reimagination and rebuilding.
The settlement of the area was originally named North Amherst in the 1820s. When the municipality was incorporated by founder Josiah Harris in 1837 it was known as Amherstville before officially settling on Amherst in 1909 following seven years of court proceedings, according to Amherst Fire Chief Jim Wilhelm.
“At one time in the 1870s Amherst was bigger than Elyria because of the stone quarries and the people coming here and seeking a place to live,” Wilhelm said. “And of course the train tracks made a big difference, too. At one time they stopped here about every hour as a train stop.”
A firefighter for more than 40 years, Wilhelm followed his father who served with the department for 42 years. his family immigrated from Switzerland to work in the quarries in the sandstone capital of the world.
In addition to looking out for the safety of Amherst residents, Wilhelm is a local historian and has been documenting the history of fires in the city dating back to the 19th century.
In 1883 a major fire on the south side of Elyria Street, now known as Park Avenue, saw eight businesses burn to the ground. Ten years later in 1893 the north side of Amherst burned, destroying 10 businesses.
With modern-day Park Avenue running through the heart of downtown Amherst, The building codes and standards of the 19th century and the propensity for fires resulted in Amherst taking action in 1893.
“After the 1893 fire they said no more wood buildings. They had to be built out of block or brick. And that’s why the downtown is basically brick,” Wilhelm said.
Rebuilding and relocating buildings is part of Amherst’s history in the modern inception of the city.
“There were some very, very large fires,” Wilhelm noted. “The first hotel was built here in 1845 and in 1870 it burned to the ground. They rebuilt it in 1883 and it burned to the ground again.”
Downtown Amherst in this era consisted of buildings known as “blocks.”
A prominent location included Plato Block, a reference to prominent Germanborn Amherst businessman Henry A. Plato.
“This was a wooden structure and they called this a block. And this was the Plato Block. There was a grocery store in the back here,” Wilhelm said. “Plato had a dry goods store and there was a grain store. Everybody had a hall. The Plato Hall was above it.”
Wilhelm explained the halls were the center of social gatherings in Amherst before the age of television or the Internet. A devastating fire in 1900 destroyed Plato Block, a saloon next door and a harness shop.
Heavy winds from the blaze whipped fire across the street also destroying the Methodist church.
Despite the turbulent history, one building from the pre-1883 era remains. The Quarry Café, built in the 1850s or 1860s is one of only two only wood-framed structures still standing on Park Avenue.
Across the street, there is a wooden structure built after the 1883 fire.
Local historian Matt Nahorn is presently working on a research project seeking to understand why Amherst’s downtown is located where it is.
According to Nahorn, Harris, who relocated from Becket, Massachusetts, modeled Amherst’s downtown core after Pittsfield, a city in the heart of the Berkshire’s of western Massachusetts. Harris recognized the value of the industrial base of the sandstone quarries, nearby farmland and a railroad.
“When Harris arrived here I’m sure that’s something he saw as very much an advantage,” Nahorn said.
Harris donated land for Amherst’s town hall on the condition that it be constructed from sandstone. It was constructed in 1884 for a price of $17,070 despite the protests of local residents who desired a more affordable wood-framed structure.
A two-story house located behind the present sandstone city hall was Amherst’s original school house in addition to the incarnation of St. Peter’s Church. After being damaged from multiple fires beginning in 1849 it was moved across the street and became the first town hall, the site of early council meetings before Amherst was officially incorporated.